Dustin and Christine Dyck pose at home with their 13-year-old son Lucas, who is transgender. The family is in favour of Education Ministry initiatives to support gender neutrality and self-identity.TROY FLEECE / Regina Leader-Post

Kevin Gabel, executive director of programs for the provincial education ministry, said it has been “ongoing for a while” to allow students to register by gender self-identity, whether or not they were born into that gender.

“We have had students who now identify with a different gender; we are able to accommodate them and will continue to accommodate them,” said Gabel.

Further, in fall 2016-17, children won’t have to register as male or female: unspecified will also be an option.

“We’re trying to make sure a student feels safe and respected in the schools at all times, and if this is one thing we can do, we will do it,” said Gabel.

“Being able to be who you are is huge. It’s even bigger to have the gender-fluid option; it actually encompasses everybody,” said Dustin, who serves as a board member for TransSask, a support network for transgender and gender-queer people.

“I think it’s good because I get to be myself at school and I don’t have to be labelled female at school,” said Lucas.

“If he’s able to register as a male,” said Dustin, “nobody needs to know him as anything but a male. … There’s no, ‘Are you a boy? Are you a girl?’ ”

Gabel said the ministry has received no negative feedback about this policy.

“Being transgender, my understanding is that it’s a difficult position to be in and anything we can do to ease this for students and parents is gratefully accepted,” said Gabel. “Our job is to do what is best for the student.”

The province’s new joint-use schools will include gender-neutral washrooms.

Another boon for transgender students is the ministry’s inclusion of gender-neutral washrooms in new school designs.

Nine joint-use schools set to open for the 2017-18 school year have gender-neutral washrooms.

“We know students who identify as gender- and/or sexually diverse do not always feel safe, and bathrooms are one of the areas where concerns have been raised,” said Gabel. “We’re trying to make these schools as welcoming as possible for all students.”

The washrooms are being built with floor-to-ceiling private stalls and open sink areas.

In addition to gender-neutral washrooms, there will still be the traditional boys’ and girls’ washrooms, which will have a similar setup.

Students “have the right to use the bathroom which goes with the gender they identify with,” said Gabel.

Though they have the right to use it, Lucas still feels “awkward” using the male washroom at school.

“If he goes in the female washroom, well, he’s a male so that’s not really kosher. If he goes in the male washroom, he’s trans so he’s bullied. There’s no win,” said Dustin.

His school has been “fantastic,” said Dustin, transforming an old staff washroom into a gender-neutral washroom for Lucas to use.

“We always want all of our students to feel safe, no matter the reason — safe and welcomed and unquestioned,” said West.

In some of the older schools, that has meant some adjustments, like students using washrooms meant for disabled people.

For high school athletics, students might use a teacher’s office rather than the change room, or be dismissed a few minutes early for a shower.

Regina Public Schools has included gender-neutral washrooms in its new school designs for the past four years, said facilities superintendent Dave Bryanton.

At Seven Stones School, which opened in fall 2014, every washroom is gender-neutral.

Stephanie Cox of TransSask said the schools’ inclusion of gender-neutral washrooms “sends out a signal to society” that gender identities are being taken seriously.

That was the case at Lucas’s public school.

After he came out, teachers incorporated novel studies of two books featuring transgender characters. The questions by his fellow students have waned and he feels more accepted than he did when the school year began.

“It’s really hard when people always ask you questions and always say that you’re the opposite gender and say that you’re a faker or a tranny, freak, or something. I just want people be who they are,” said Lucas.

“I don’t want any other little boy or girl going through the same thing as I did because it’s a bad place to be.”

“Love is love. People are people,” added Dustin. “What I’d like to see is just a day where it doesn’t matter who you are … Washrooms aren’t an issue. People just allow people to be who they are.”

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Health Videos

Business of Health

This section was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of an Innovative Medicines Canada company.